After a Bradley student discovered her mother was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, Panhellenic Council decided to team up with the student to organize a bone marrow registry drive for Dec. 5.
Junior public relations major Alli Krone said she learned last May that her mother, Marsha, is sick.
“She was still working, still exercising, still being the best mother I could ask for,” Krone said. “She wasn’t deteriorating as some people do when they have cancer.”
Krone said though there are 27 million potential donors in the bone marrow database, there are no matches for her mother.
“This drive is important to me, not only because of my mom, but [because] bone marrow transplants are so special,” Krone said. “There are people all over the world that need them, and to not have a match is really, very scary … You never know; you could be someone’s only match.”
Jaclyn Clark, president of Panhellenic Council, said she expects to see many students show up to the drive.
“A decent amount of people [said] they are going to go, so hopefully that rings true and they sign up, because it is something that is so scarce right now that if it could help [Krone’s] mom, if it could help anybody, it would be huge,” Clark, a junior sports communication major, said.
At the drive, registrants will fill out a questionnaire with personal information and have their cheeks swabbed.
“Later down the road, if you’re a match for somebody, you’ll get a phone call … and at that point, you’re one of the very few people that could probably save that person’s life, so it’s really important that you then go and donate,” Clark said.
The drive will allow students to join Be the Match, a network of 13.5 million potential bone barrow donors. According to the network’s website, 1 in 430 U.S. registrants go on to be donors.
“There are so few people that get the opportunity to get a transplant because there are so few matches,” Clark said. “If I were in [Krone’s] position, I would want everybody on this campus to come out and sign up because somebody on this campus could be saving my mom’s life, and when you think about it that way, it really puts things in perspective.”
The bone marrow registry drive is from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 5 in Markin Recreational Center, and signing up in advance is not necessary. Those interested also have the option of visiting BeTheMatch.org and using the promo code “MARSHASMATCH” to receive an at-home cheek swab kit to register.
